


Arya Stark and her Dinosaur

by Gazyrlezon



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Braavos, Dinosaurs, Gen, because Arya would totally have a pet Dinosaur!, in the Sealord's palace, just because, oh yes it's actuall canon, well … kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-14
Updated: 2016-09-14
Packaged: 2018-08-15 01:43:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8037334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gazyrlezon/pseuds/Gazyrlezon
Summary: Because, of course, everything's better with Dinosaurs.
Also, because dinosaurs in the Sealord's palace are actually kind-of canon.





	Arya Stark and her Dinosaur

The beast was the strangest she had ever seen, even within the boundaries of the Sealord’s menagerie. She remembered another girl, long ago, who’d had a dancing master telling her of these creatures from far away, but never once had she dreamt such a thing could exist in truth. 

Yet here it was. 

The lizard – she thought it must be a lizard, surely, with the scales; but then again, the scales were only visible along its underside, the rest of it was covered in feathers, as if it was the largest bird anyone had ever seen, and it had only two legs, too, though no wings but hands instead – was being kept in one of the cages, safely hidden until it was needed to impress lords from far away, and show them the great power of the Braavosi. It had scythes for claws, or what she supposed must be claws, and a queer horn-like appendage on its head, coloured in patters of yellow and red; but the feathers were black, with white ones hidden amongst the others. 

The girl couldn’t help it. She’d already seen the monster half a hundred times, and yet she could not help but wonder every time; wonder where such a creature might have been found, where it had used to live before some brave captain of the Braavosi fleet had found and captured it. She was at a loss, too, when she tried to imagine on what kind of beast such a creature might prey. Surely there had to be others, more of these two-legged lizards, somewhere in the world? 

Dreams hidden in her long ago resurfaced every time she came by, of ships and the offer to stay on one of them; and visit far-away lands. In time, she thought of other lands, where such beast surely may not have existed, but where another girl had spent her childhood. 

The girl found herself walking by the cage far more often than she would’ve needed to. 

_In a way, it’s like me_ , she thought, _foreign here, and so far away from home. So_ _far._

Then she kicked herself; these thoughts weren’t her own, were not for her to think. 

No. 

She was just a girl, a simple girl employed to keep the beasts well-fed and happy, so none of them would kill each other. She wasn’t here to think, just to help with the creatures and sink back into the shadows whenever the Sealord paraded men through these halls. 

She certainly wasn’t a girl from another land, longing for her a home she’d long since tried to leave behind, and to forget. 

Making her way through the hall, that great hall just beside the Sealord’s palace, so one could drive the beast hidden here out to the parks and gardens should the Sealord desire it, and to make it easy for the crews of ships to bring in new arrivals. 

When she’d first come here, she’d spent hours looking at them, at the long-necked beast with yellow-and-brown skin that could almost reach the ceiling, at the lions and tigers, even at the lizard-lion, for whom the Sealord had commissioned its own basin, so it wouldn’t dry out. That one had always seemed a little lonely to her; none of the Sealord’s guests ever wanted to stay long with it, fearing it might sprinkle them with the muddy water. 

Not that the girl had any such fears. If it weren’t for the lizard-lion’s constant hunger, she’d happily jump into the basin herself. 

Alas, that would not be. 

So she just took whatever meat and grain they needed from the storage rooms, and cleaned the cages, wherever possible. She was good with beasts, always had been, and even the awe-inspiring predators would seldom lash out, and none of them had ever hurt her, though some, like the lizard-lion and the tiger, didn’t tolerate her presence for very long. It showed in the way they moved, the way they looked at her, as if they were wondering if the girl standing there would taste as delicious as the food she brought them. 

It wasn’t really hard work, and downright easy compared to what work she’d done before, out on the streets, and the girl learnt all manner of interesting things about her charges. Even so, the work earned her a meal twice a day, and a little servant’s room to sleep in. Only once a week would she leave the palace at all, to go to the Isle of the Gods, and talk with the kindly man, telling him three new things every time. 

She’d been surprised at how many things one could learn just by listening to the other servants, and to the occasional visitor. 

And of course, it was always easy to learn new things about the beasts, especially the terrible lizard. That was what the others called it, the creature with the scales and feathers and claws, and truly it _was_ terrible to look at, but then she’d known a man with only half a face who had been kind to her, so she truly wasn’t one to pass judgement over it just based on its looks. 

And while she would truly be afraid should she ever come across one free, it wasn’t long till the two of them had formed a friendship of sorts. The other keepers always had trouble with this one, she’d observed, the lizard would tolerate none of them, and often beat at its cage with claws and tail when someone went too close. 

Only with her it was different. It wouldn’t exactly behave like a little dog pup then, either, but at least it would wait patently until she’d shoved its meat through the bars of its cage, and not try and hurt her finger while she was at it. 

After some time, the girl took to sitting in front of the cage, just looking at it, and sometimes almost forgot to learn three new things every week. 

Again, she wondered where it had come from, and whether it missed its home as terribly as she missed hers. 

Then she had to slap herself again; she wasn’t that stupid weak girl with a name from a faraway land, she _wasn’t_. 

Still, she wondered if the terrible lizard had any name; a proper one, like lions were called _lions_ and wolves were called _wolves_ , or if men encountered them so rarely that no one had thought to give it one. 

Sometimes she wondered if _she_ should give it a name. But then that would hardly be right, as she didn’t have one herself. 

Regardless of that, though, she couldn’t help herself, and thought of name after name, hoping no one would notice. One day, on a whim, she named the beast _Scales_ , because she liked the sound of it, and because the beast had so few of them that you would almost need to point them out, or people wouldn’t see them and mistake it for a simply another large bird, as there were so many others in the Sealord’s collection. 

Scales seemed to like his new name, and soon he would only answer to her calling him that, looking straight towards her whenever she brought him food. 

Sometimes, at night, she dreamt of bars in front of her eyes, and memories of a girl calling her strange names, and of the meat she’d bring her. 

One week, she actually forgot to learn three things for the House of Black and White. 

Not long after, a guard of the palace found the terrible lizard’s cage broken, its door ripped apart from it and lying on the floor. 

And soon, rumours flooded the city of Arya Stark, who’d taken back her home, with an awe-inspiring monster at her side. 

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, before I say anything else, here's the bit on Dinosaurs being canon:
> 
> Remember that story Syrio told Arya, to explain why he became the Sealord's First Sword of Bravoos? The one with the fat cat of the streets, and only he dared to tell the Sealord that this "strange beast" was actually a tomcat like a thousand others?
> 
> Here's what he said just before that, telling us of what other beasts the Sealord has:
> 
> "Hear me. The ships of Braavos sail as far as the winds blow, to lands strange and wonderful, and when they return their captains fetch queer animals to the Sealord's menagerie. Such animals as you have never seen, striped horses, great spotted things with necks as long as stilts, hairy mouse-pigs as big as cows, stinging manticores, tigers that carry their cubs in a pouch, terrible walking lizards with scythes for claws. Syrio Forel has seen these things."
> 
> _Terrible walking lizards with scythes for claws?_
> 
> Yeah, that sounds rather a lot like a dinosaur, or, more specifically, like a velociraptor as portrayed in _Jurassic Park_ , which incidentally was released just three years before _A Game of Thrones_. Basically, that line is a shoutout to that film, but I thought I'd use it anyways.
> 
> Don't believe me? The word _Dinosaur_ derives from the greek _δεινός_ ( _deinos_ , meaning _terrible_ or _fearfully great_ ) and _σαῦρος_ ( _sauros_ , meaning _lizard_ ). Now how does Syrio describe these beasts? Oh, right, as _terrible lizards!_
> 
> Basically, the idea of Arya meeting a dinosaur just refused to leave my head, and I had to write _something_ about it. Originally, I wanted her to fight it in something like an arena, but then realized that I'd have to somehow move her to Meereen to make that work. So I opted to have her meet the beast in one of the undercover-missions for the House of Black and White, and after remembering her warging abilities that are powerful enough to still reach out to Nymeria while she's _on a different continent_ , well, how could I resist?
> 
> The dinosaur I describe here is based on an illustration of a Guanlong (specifically, [this one](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanlong#/media/File:Guanlong_wucaii_by_durbed.jpg)), because, well, the velociraptor never existed in the form we are all familiar with, and the larger members of that family were apparently all so covered in feathers that you'd loose any right to call them _lizards_ instead of _birds without wings_.
> 
> _Scales_ is, of course, my own shoutout to the shortfilm _Sintel_ (you can watch it [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRsGyueVLvQ)).
> 
> All in all, this was a very strange story to write; it constantly shifted and twisted in my mind with every word I put down. Seeing as I normally have everything sketched out before I write a single word, that was a very weird experience indeed. Now, of course, someone has to write how Arya and her pet dinosaur conquer Westeros (though that probably won't be me)!


End file.
